Mumbai: Juhu teenagers' solution to pollution bags top global award

A trio of teenagers from Juhu made the country - and their schools - proud last week, as they received the prestigious Future Innovation Award in Costa Rica last week. Team G-Force from India won the award at the World Robot Olympics (WRO) 2017. The team comprised three 13-year-olds - Aarav Patel, Sidharth Jain from Jamnabai Narsee School and Shiv Mehta from Oberoi International School, who were representing their robotics coaching centre OMOTEC Robotics.

Aarav Patel, Sidharth Jain and Shiv Mehta present their project at the competition

At the competition, team G-Force presented their project 'Trail On,' which displayed a mechanism that helped two cars run on only one engine. Their innovative idea involved having the leading car transmit power to a trailing car for saving fuel and reducing carbon emission. The young engineers presented their engineering and mechanical concept, which involves extending the propeller shaft through an axle that transmits power from the differential of one car, to rotate the wheels of the one trailing it.

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Developed together
"We developed 'Trail On' together; the idea came about when we saw many cars going in the same direction, polluting the air, [each] emitting the same amount of carbon and using the same amount of fuel together," said Sidharth, who, along with his team mates, has been working on the project since the last five months.

Sidharth says the mechanism automatically adjusts to the different ground clearances of the car, as well as to the left and right, in case the alignment of the car is improper. It has to then go forward and connect itself to the second car. The boys took this innovation to the competition, where they qualified and won the world championship.

Unexpected win
Breaking down the award-winning project, Shiv told mid-day, "Trail On is not about towing or pulling, but trailing. It is when two cars connect and transmit power through a simple connection. This connection links to the engine of the first car and the differential of the first car and then to the wheels of the second car. This connection allows power to be transmitted from one car to the other."

He added: "We didn't expect to win when we first came up with this idea and thought we'd go home empty-handed, but when our name was called on stage, we all ran. The only prizes we got were the medal and the trophy, but we were proud to know that we were one of the two teams from India to have won first place at the international level."

Proud parents say
Sumit Patel, Aarav's father, who travelled with the kids, said: "The robotics projects demand a lot of time, but they are very addictive as we see these young students getting so involved in the fun applied learning and activities."

Miten Mehta, Shiv's father of Shiv Mehta, said: "My son says robotics allows him to express himself and develop and create solutions for some of the key world issues. It also enables him to contribute to shaping the future." Reetu Jain, co-founder and chief mentor of OMOTEC Robotics education institute, said: "We created this robotics lab as a dream workshop for young engineers who wish to work with real tools."